12• Cape Legrand NP – Barmah

In this blog we actually ended up in 4 different states: Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and a tiny bit of New South Whales.

We first tackled the WA’s Nullarbor plain, driving along the longest straight stretch of road in the country, and included a diversion to see the Eyre Bird Observatory close to Cocklebiddy where we had a chance to do a walk on some beautiful sand dunes and see the Ocean again. We chose some alternatives to the main bitumen Highway to get a better feel of such a huge and empty area of flat land and we certainly got it! Some of the roads were private and we had to call for permission to drive on their land. We managed not to get lost but we certainly felt very alone. Not seeing any other vehicle reinforced that feeling.

Once back on the Eyre Highway, still travelling along the seemingly endless Nullarbor plain, land and water of the Great Ocean Bight met in a series of dramatic cliff-faces creating a very contrasting and dramatic environment.

We then returned to more familiar territories with beautiful bays, sand dunes, farmland and some National Parks.

We had the chance to see sea lions and had to learn how to cope with thousands of feral bees during an extremely hot day at Coffin Bay National Park. Back in town (Coffin Bay) we tasted some delicious local oysters.

After having navigated through the Clare & Barrossa Valley as well as the Adelaide Hills and tasted some of their renowned food specialities (wine, cheese and fruits), we followed the Murray-Darling / Murray River upstream opting for our now well known “short cuts” with as little bitumen as possible. Short cuts usually ending up taking us much longer to reach our destination!!!

We had to use our 4×4 driving skills to swirl around and get through a very wet and muddy track (Old Mail Road) following recent rain and we ended up bogged twice!

If we managed to get ourselves out the first time, we had to call for help on the second occasion after more than 2 hours of digging and using our maxtraxs. Our lucky star worked twice: not only a sign 150m away with contact numbers (old rehabilitated sheep station) but we kind of miraculously got some phone reception in this deserted area!

We left a message at the station and got ready to sleep in the car as the night started to fall. We ended up being rescued around 9pm. They came with car (which got bogged too), tractor and chains to pull us out and following yet another challenging drive at night to the station, they even provided us with a much needed shower and a bed. Thank you heaps!!!

Armande was glad to return to some bitumen and Jean-Philippe had to stick to it for at least a good few days.

One of our most beautiful camping site so far! Scott Bay, SA.
Video taken from jph’s drone. Still wearing the L-plate so thank you for your understanding…

driving throuth Gawler NP, SA